Disappointed Derek McInnes admits the decision to sell Scott Wright to Rangers was taken out of his hands by the Aberdeen board.
The winger had penned a pre-contract agreement with Steven Gerrard's side but was allowed to leave Pittodrie in January after a fee was agreed with the Ibrox side.
However, the under-pressure Dons boss conceded he wanted to keep Wright rather than be forced into a full strikeforce revamp late in the transfer window.
Fraser Hornby, Florian Kamberi and Callum Hendry were all signed to replace Sam Cosgrove, Curtis Main and Wright in a series on deadline day deals.
However, the trio all failed to score in the goalless slog with St Mirren in the Granite City on Saturday.
McInnes told Sportsound after the final whistle: “If you look at each deal in isolation, we have brought in £6m this year, we are trying to achieve our objectives of what we want to do.
"Supporters want to see the team win as I do, but we all want to achieve and objective and all have a responsibility in a tough financial situation that we are in through Covid to bring in as much money to the club as possible.
“£6m in any given window is good business, so we are trying to deal with that. The money for McKenna was right, the money for Cosgrove was right, Scott Wright leaving on the last day of the window; would I have wanted to keep him? Absolutely I wanted to keep him. I would have because the boy was committed to us."
When pressed by Kenny McIntyre on if it was his decision, he added: “No, but it’s a board decision. There is money there to come in.
“So it was disappointing to lose him but I accept it. It’s not the first player I have lost through transfers.
“Managers are always precious and or job is to look after the team, but we lost him.
“That impacted even more when we lost Ryan Hedges two days later, out for the season.
“Now we are trying to find a way to play to carry a threat. It’s difficult, as you see.
“It’s par for the course as a manager, but I was disappointed with how late we left our business in the window.”
With Aberdeen winning just one game so far this year and failing to score in their last five games, McInnes this was the most challenging period of his eight-year spell at Pittodrie.
When asked by the BBC if it was his toughest time in the Dons' dugout he went on: “Yes, I think so. If management was easy anybody would do it.”
